Why is it so important to Christians that Mary had to be a virgin?
Was it just a marketing idea for a more dramatic touch?
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SW-User
As another has said, a virgin birth to "fulfil prophecy" involving a disputed passage in the OT (that would seem only to speak of a [i]young[/i] woman, not virgin)
Again, some scholars have argued that in the ancient world it was believed that it was purely the seed of a man that brought forth birth. After St Augustine taught that original sin was passed on to each human being in the sexual act this consolidated the necessity that Jesus be born of a virgin, as if not so, he would himself have inherited original sin and thus not be the sinless offering to the Father.
Once it became known that a woman played a necessary part (her egg) as well as the sperm of the male, along came the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary), now a necessity to once more preserve the sinlessness of Jesus.
Again, some scholars have argued that in the ancient world it was believed that it was purely the seed of a man that brought forth birth. After St Augustine taught that original sin was passed on to each human being in the sexual act this consolidated the necessity that Jesus be born of a virgin, as if not so, he would himself have inherited original sin and thus not be the sinless offering to the Father.
Once it became known that a woman played a necessary part (her egg) as well as the sperm of the male, along came the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary), now a necessity to once more preserve the sinlessness of Jesus.